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Alopecia areata related to high prevalence of comorbid conditions
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Patients with alopecia areata had a high prevalence of comorbid conditions, according to study results published today.
In a retrospective cross-sectional study, researchers identified 3,568 patients with alopecia areata (AA) seen in tertiary care hospitals in Boston between January 2000 and January 2011. Three hundred-fifty patients were randomly selected, and their medical records were reviewed to train and validate a novel artificial intelligence program. AA diagnoses were reconfirmed by free-text records, and after reviewing a 40-patient subset, the algorithm showed 93.9% validity.
The artificial intelligence program identified 2,115 patients with AA (mean age, 42 years; 61.7% women). Atopy (allergic rhinitis, asthma and/or eczema in 38.2% of patients and contact dermatitis and other eczema in 35.9%) was a common comorbid condition, along with mental health problems (depression or anxiety, 25.5%) and autoimmune diagnoses (thyroid disease, 14.6%; diabetes mellitus, 11.1%; inflammatory bowel disease, 6.3%; systemic lupus erythematosus, 4.3%; and psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, 2.0%). Hyperlipidemia (24.5%), hypertension (21.9%) and anemia (19.6%) also displayed high prevalences.
When the same comorbid conditions were evaluated in 402 patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (mean age, 56 years; 49.3% women), notable differences in prevalences included atopy (27.9%), rheumatoid arthritis (32.3%) and hypertension (44.3%). There were significant differences in the associated comorbid conditions between the AA cohort and the psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis cohort (P<.001), according to Pearson chi-square test results.
“Physicians caring for patients with AA should be aware of the associated comorbid conditions, especially autoimmune-related disease, atopic diathesis and mental health problems, so that we can screen for them when clinically indicated,” the researchers concluded.
Disclosure: See the study for a full list of relevant disclosures.
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